UK TV magazine reviews

[knightendo77]

All of the guides for next week's programmes (when KR begins) came out today, and out of the four main weekly TV magazine guides here in the UK, both TV Quick and TV Choice don't list the Sci-Fi channel and as such haven't offered up any news of the new KR series. Both TV Times and Radio Times did though, so how did it fare...?

TV Times gave the pilot movie 4 out of 5, saying that fans of the original will get a massive kick out of it when the revamped theme tune kicks in and then lists off lots of good points, like the car itself, the film being very entertaining, and Hasselhoff's cameo. They give a quick run-down of the plot but finish the small column by saying "the bad news, however, is that while it's very entertaining, the series itself was cancelled in the States due to poor ratings."

Radio Times was less approving. Saying "it was ridiculed in the US" isn't a great start, then to go on to list things they feel are woeful isn't good either: "Actors who emphasise the wrong words in sentences, TV movie lighting, action movie cliches and gratuitous boob shots". Oh dear. They then go on to say "if you accept this stagnant bilge is being aimed at mindless TV meatheads you might find yourself enjoying it in a very cheesy way".

Sounds like the TV Times is going on the movie alone while the Radio Times has seen the series. On a personal note, this backs up my feelings that when GST was given the show he saw it as a way of doing 'Fast & The Furious: The TV Show' rather than Knight RIder :S Just my own personal opinion, but I really think he was the wrong man for the job!

[Solid Snake]

Sounds like the TV Times is going on the movie alone while the Radio Times has seen the series. On a personal note, this backs up my feelings that when GST was given the show he saw it as a way of doing 'Fast & The Furious: The TV Show' rather than Knight RIder :S Just my own personal opinion, but I really think he was the wrong man for the job!

Agreed! I would cheer "ANDRON ANDRON ANDRON" now but it's not like people will hear that! The thing that puzzles me... did the guys that green light the pilot even see the episodes or did they just take GST's word for it and saw the KR label on it and just said "great".

[DevonStyles]

The sad thing is if Knight Rider would have had a fraction of the action that the fast and the furious movies had I think we would be getting a renewed series.

[KnightINSTINCT]

How many shows beside Knight Rider have been speculated to be canceled from popular reader mags? This is outrageous how now the whole world is basically telling us that this show is done.

I just can't understand how a show that, while running, didn't advertise and still carried fair ratings, but was canceled by NBC because people didn't like it..?

[KITT]

the UK seems to be doing a lot more and better advertising then NBC ever did.

[knightendo77]

Actually, while it's good to see it advertised, it's a fraction of what NBC did in the build-up to transmission and over the first few weeks. They spent millions on advertising! It's not NBC's fault.

[PHOENIXZERO]

You keep going on about how NBC spent millions while neglecting they spent those "millions" advertising on their own network where they name the price or a few banners and most of the advertising was not directed toward Knight Rider, it covered a lot of shows and mostly My Own Worst Enemy. You keep going on and defending NBC as if they pulled out all the stops and people just didn't watch. Certainly the failure of the ratings was not all NBC's fault but many of the creative choices that were made in the backdoor pilot and continued with what choices were made going into the series but stop parroting NBC's press release. However, NBC's giving up and doing next to nothing to try and bring people back after the changes that were made is still on them. We've been over this before and KR's success in name recognition and public awareness was not a result of the advertising campaign for the series, sure I'm sure it did grab some attention but many people already knew what KR was well before the first episode aired..

[knightendo77]

I'm not repeating a press release, I'm stating what Sci Fi Now magazine quoted as independent research and the promotional campaign aimed solely at Knight Rider, not their whole fall schedule.

Plus, GST was the one who went on record in an interview with said magazine that stated NBC were the ones who forced the reboot, they were the ones who wanted to make it more like the original, whereas GST wanted to carry on the same way as those first few.

Yes we'd have all liked NBC to really push the reboot but with only 5 eps left and the previous marketing push only attracting 7 mil I can't blame them for not doing so. They'd have been keeping tabs though, I'm sure of it. However, the fact ratings were consistant and gained a little with no promotion, and the shows that have followed it faired much WORSE with promotion speaks volumes to me.